Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

People are stunned to hear that one company has data files on 185 million Americans.

Power has to be insecure to be responsive.

John D. Rockefeller wanted to dominate oil, but Microsoft wants it all, you name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships.

This (George W. Bush's) administration is not sympathetic to corporations, it is indentured to corporations.

The corporate lobby in Washington is basically designed to stifle all legislative activity on behalf of consumers.

Every time I see something terrible, it's like I see it at age 19. I keep a freshness that way.

Sanctions against polluters are feeble and out of date, and are rarely invoked.

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.

Our founders did not oust George III in order for us to crown Richard I.

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.

This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies.

Your best teacher is your last mistake.

Let's not just look at it as taking votes away from Gore. Our support comes from a lot of people.

The liberal intelligentsia has allowed its party to become a captive of corporate interests.

Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you.

President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people.

When strangers start acting like neighbors... communities are reinvigorated.

The networks are not some chicken-coop manufacturing lobby whose calls nobody returns.

For almost seventy years the life insurance industry has been a smug sacred cow feeding the public a steady line of sacred bull.

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

I don't think meals have any business being deductible. I'm for separation of calories and corporations.

A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.

Like sex in Victorian England, the reality of Big Business today is our big dirty secret.

No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling.

The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference.

A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.

I once said to my father, when I was a boy, 'Dad we need a third political party.' He said to me, 'I'll settle for a second.'

If God hadn't meant for us to eat sugar, he wouldn't have invented dentists.

It is fascinating to watch legislators turn away from their usual corporate grips when they hear the growing thunder of the people.

The 'democracy gap' in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote, or listlessly vote for the 'least worst' every four years and then wonder why after every cycle the 'least worst' gets worse.

The nation is faced with one of the most corporate-orientated anti-consumer Congresses in our history.

Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.

We must strive to become good ancestors.

A citizenship of wholesale delegation and abdication to public and private power systems such as prevails now makes such periodic checks as elections little more than rituals.

Every culture has something to be ashamed of but every culture also has the right to change to challenge negative traditions and create to new ones.

The essence of globalization is a subordination of human rights of labor rights consumer environmental rights democracy rights to the imperatives of global trade and investment.

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders not more followers.

Ending police brutality and mass incarceration. There is a growing left-right support for criminal justice reform.

We are practicing what we preach so that we may preach what we practice.

This welfare for wealthy companies wastes taxpayer dollars, harms the environment, and makes a mockery of the recent reductions in federal social spending programs.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

Democracy is stronger than terrorism, and we will not cower to the terrorists' campaign of fear.